Twitter might be looking to kill its Twitter #Music app because of poor usage numbers, according to AllThingsD. The music app is suffering the same fate as most iOS apps in an overcrowded field: it's hard to make an app, then gain visibility, then have users use it again and again when there are just so many apps arriving every week.

"Upon its April debut, Twitter #Music spiked in the App Store rankings, reaching the No. 6 slot in overall free app downloads. But in the months that followed it slipped quickly. Sources said that since the initial surge the app has seen “abysmal” numbers both in iTunes App Store downloads and engagement," said AllThingsD.

This is a common trend and makes me stop to think about why a mobile app might be a poor strategy given the time, cost and effort it takes to create something that gets so little use from users. Most apps don't get used after the first two of weeks of downloading. VentureBeat mentions that after an initial surge in downloads after the launch of Twitter #Music, downloads dropped by 62% over the next two weeks and never recovered the initial surge.

Still, the smartphone mobile app continues to dominate popular thinking. It seems to me a better approach might be to optimize a website for all platforms: iOS, Android, Windows Phone, desktop / laptop computers and the living room, which is the next big frontier in the web game. It's also why I never chose to develop apps for Spacelab.